Phantom Leader Linebacker kickoff
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This is my second "game" of Phantom Leader, and my first where I'm handling everything straight from the rules without recourse to Youtube, forums, etc. I'll have a bit more to say about the rules later.
At the moment, my biggest question is exactly how to count plays of this game? The real action is admittedly in the campaign scenarios, but isn't it just as viable to fly a single mission for scoring? I'm torn here because I do keep stats, and it will make a difference in how the stats resolve. For example, a long campaign is 12 missions. Is one play or 12 plays? I haven't yet decided.
In the meantime, here's how the first Linebacker mission of the short campaign played out.
Linebacker USN, short campaign parameters
(This pisses me off: I took notes on this play through on my iPad, which decided to use fucking "Smart Lists" for the phase numbering. Which of course didn't carry over into email. I'm not a big fan of public profanity, but this fucking pisses me off, as there is apparently no option for taking notes in flat text.)
I'm playing the short USN Linebacker campaign, which is 4 days and grants 16 Special Option (SO) points.
Here's a go at a turn sequence.
Turn Sequence
Preflight
1. Draw target cards First two targets are Flak Trap 41 and Minor Bridge 8.
2. Select target and move Politics Counter I'm choosing Flak Trap
for the first mission, it allows 3 planes, and does not move the Politics
marker. However it's a stress 3 and -2 WP.
3. Determine and place sites
4. Assign pilots
Here's the lineup for the campaign:
- Buick, skilled-9
- Easy Money, average-7
- Whiplash, average-6
- Taxi, average-5
- Griz, average-5
- Gringo, green-6
- Firefly, green-4
- Pluto, newbie-4
Mission will be flown by Pluto, Firefly and Buick.
Pluto flies the A-4, which adds 3 SO.
Apparently there are Campaign turns and Mission turns. Mission turns are always 5 and are on the board. Not sure what a Campaign turn is, it might be 1 day.
How many missions can be flown in a day? I don't know, so I'm not going to worry about it until after I have the first mission flown.
5. Arm aircraft
Time to load out. Will load only GBU-10 special weapons for first mission, costs 2 SO.
Target 41 is -2 WP.
- Pluto: Mk. 83, AGM-45.
- Firefly: BLU-1, GBU-10, Mk. 82
- Buick: AIM-9x3, Mk. 82se
Target-bound flight
6. Draw Target-Bound Event card
Destroy one center site.
7. Place Aircraft and Flight Paths
Enter west, exit south.
8. Determine and Place Bandits
Done.
9. Intel Air Defense Destruction
none
10. Draw Over Target Event card
Inflict 1 hit on target, draw 2 bandits, both blank.
11. Place Turn Counter in "1" box
Over Target (5 Times)
12. Jettison Decision
no jettison
13. Fast pilots attack
This would be Buick, but the Mk. 82se has range 0, so it's no go.
14. Return fire Pluto is targeted by M1939, rolls 8, Pluto is destroyed. Bummer.
But let's roll for an evasion, roll 6, this puts a Stress 1 marker on Pluto.
That's everything in range right now, time for the slow folks to fire.
15. Slow Pilots Attack Firefly gonna drop Mk. 82 on M1939 site, roll 7 is a hit,
site destroyed.
16. Aircraft move and adjust altitude Firefly stays high, Buick and Pluto go low.
17. Bandits move Both into center area.
18. Advance turn counter
Target Turn 2
12. no jettison.
13. fast pilots attack, Buick attacks MiG-21 with AIM-9, +1 ATA,
roll 5+1 for 6, that's a hit and bandit destroyed.
14. Sites and bandits attack, but nothing here.
15. Slow pilots attack, no loadout for soft target range 1 Low.
17. Aircraft move and adjust altitude.
17. Bandits move.
18. Advance turn counter.
Target Turn 3
12. no jettison.
13. fast pilots attack, Buick fires AiM-9 on MiG-19, roll 1, miss, try again, roll 5+1, hit, bandit destroyed.
14. Sites and bandits, pluto is damaged from infantry, stress to 6. Buick takes fire from HMG, rolls 7, but Buick tries to suppress with Mk. 82se, rolls 2 +2 +1 for 5 need 7, suppression fails, Buick takes damage.
15. Slow pilots attack, Firefly drops GBU-10 on target, roll 2 for 1 hit, this mission is a bust.
16. move and adjust altitude
17. bandits move, none
18. advance turn counter.
Target Turn 4
There is nothing in range here.
Target Turn 5
Again, nothing in range
Home Bound
19 S-60 roll 6 for damage, +2 stress on Buick.
20 SAR, n/a.
Debriefing
21 Record mission outcome, victory points, adjust recon and intel counter and special option points.
- Mission outcome was failure. The target got 2 hits, needed 3 to accumulate damage for VP.
- No VP from this mission.
- Recon: 0
- Intel: 0
- Special Option points: 19 - 2 = 17.
22 Add target card stress to pilots.
Stress is +3 for this target. I made an error by applying Stress before mission, which put two pilots unfit during the mission. The end result may be the same, except for not having another piece of ordnance to drop on the target.
- Buick: 4 for Damage and Evasion + 3 = 7.
- Firefly: 3 for mission = 3.
- Pluto: 3 from Damage and Evasion + 3 = 6.
23 Pilot stress recovery.
- Buick: 7 SP - 0 Cool = 7.
- Firefly: 3 SP - 1 Cool = 2.
- Pluto: 6 SP - 0 Cool = 6.
24 move politics counter 1 left.
25 Record Pilot Experience and Stress.
Already at 0.
AAR
After all this, I think I'm going to regard this mission as a single play. I have put a lot of work into it. I may change this decision later, after finishing a few campaigns, but for now, I'm good with it.